Botanical Drawings of A. Poiret click on the thumbnail to view full-size image

A hundred and twenty plates on behalf of one hundred and forty number of species, have been etching with the greatest attention, and less if is not necessary for of wisdom, patience and the utmost attention of Mr. A. Poiret, which only done every draw and botanical engravings accurately interpreting the minute details from each one of the part of the flowers as well as the nature form of all plants. This young painter of natural history, a worthy son of the scientist of the same name, receives here genuine assurances of my gratitude!
Gaudichaud.

Translated from the volume one of botany of the expedition of L´Uranie made by Charles Gaudichaud Beaupré. "Voyage Autour du Monde, 1826.

These are the one hundred thirty-one original botanical drawings approved by the French scientists of the Linnaean Society of Paris as a result of the investigations carried out in the journey around the world, "L'Uranie-La Physicienne" between the years 1817 to 1820 under the command of the Captain Louis de Saulces de Freycinet next to the botanist Charles Gaudichaud Beaupré, who was one of the French leading scientist and plants species collector of the 19th century.

These drawings were created in Paris between the years 1821 and 1822 with a precise copy of the species brought from remote continents as South America, Africa, Australia, Asia and the Oceania by the French artist in the area of the botanical sciences "A. Poiret”, which signature may be appreciate in many of those magnificent and unique artworks published today after 194 years.

This is the first time in the history of this very important journey of exploration of the first quart of the XIX century that those original artworks were published with the exception of those copies of the botanical atlases authorized by Louis de Freycinet in 1826.

Certain numbers of those drawings jumps one, two or various numbers, since certain have lost in the time, these missing drawings have been replaced with actual photographs showing the same category of plants, but the majority of the missing examples are displayed on the engravings section of, and vice versa.

To the memory of all the major scientists and groups that over the centuries have given us a wonderful legacy for our benefit.

Angouleme on the 4th of September 1789
Paris on the 16th of January 1854.

Gaudichaud, C. Groups: ABMPS. Organisations: B, BM, BR, DS, F, FI, G, G-DC, K, L, MO, MPU, P, PC, P-JU, US, W. Collected: (1817-1837) Chinese region: China (Guangdong), Macau; Indian region: India; Indo-China: Viet Nam; Malesian region: Indonesia (Maluku, Nusa Tenggara Timur), Malaysia (Penang), Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore; West African Islands: Canary Islands; Southern Africa: South Africa; Southern African Islands: Saint Helena; Madagascan region: Madagascar; Mascarenes: Mauritius, Reunion; Australian region: Australia; Polynesia: Mariana Islands (Northern), Micronesia (Caroline Islands); North America: USA (Hawaii); Tropical South America: Bolivia, Colombia, Peru (Callao, Puno); Brazilian region: Brazil (Rio de Janeiro); Temperate South America: Argentina, Chile (Valparaíso), Falkland Islands, Uruguay (Montevideo). Associates: Arago, J.E.V. (1799-1855) (co-collector), Beaupré, C.G. (synonym), Duperrey, L.-I. (1786-1865), d'Urville, J.S.C.D. (1790-1842) (co-collectors), Freycinet, L.-C. de S. de (1779-1842) (captain), Gaimard, J.-P. (1790-1858) (co-collector), Gaudichaud, C., Gaudichaud-Beauprés, C. (synonyms), Guichenot, A. (fl.1800-1820), Lesson, A.P.P. (1805-1888), Paul, Joseph (fl.1817) (co-collectors), Pervillé, A. (-c. 1868) (specimens from), Quoy, J.R.C. (1790-1869) (co-collector), Richard, J.M.C. (1784-1868) (specimens from). 2:220, 9:170, 11:165, 18:190, 19:25, 22:63, 23:208, 23:219, 34:654 French pharmacist and botanist who participated in a number of major expeditions including the circumnavigation (1817-1820) led by Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (1779-1842). The expedition in the corvette L'Uranie was curtailed by a shipwreck (14 February 1820) on the Iles Malouines when they attempted to reach the abandoned French settlement of Port Louis. This small colony had been established in 1763 by the first French circumnavigator, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), on what he had named the Iles Malouines as most of his colonists were from St Malo. The British, who had landed there as early as 1688, retook the colony in 1764 and named the island group the Falkland Islands. In the shipwreck of L'Uranie, several cases of specimens from the earlier part of the expedition were lost but some natural history material was salvaged, particularly from the physical sciences. Gaudichaud-Beaupré made new collections while Freycinet completed his preparations to continue the voyage. A replacement ship was fortuitously located from an American whaler named Captain Orne, who was flying the rebel flag and who anchored on the island on his way to transport cannon to Valparaíso. Freycinet negotiated use if his whaling ship, the General Knox, for completing the expedition and it was renamed La Physicienne. The Scottish Antarctic explorer James Weddell was also on the island at that time but news of the shipwreck was kept from him until after the negotiations had been concluded. He wrote of his meeting with Freycinet and his young wife Rose de Saulces de Freycinet who was illicitly on board and who wrote a fascinating journal of the expedition. Gaudichaud-Beaupré sailed again on the third round the world voyage of the Bonite (1835-1837). He visited Perrottet in India at Pondicherry and J.M.C. Richard in the Mascarenes. He was given the gift of a collection from Madagascar made by A. Pervillé, the earliest botanical collector of Madagascar. Specimens attributed to Gaudichaud-Beaupré from Madagascar are probably all referable to Pervillé or perhaps J.M.C. Richard. After completing his expeditions Gaudichaud-Beaupré was given the post of Professor of Pharmacy in Paris and was attached to the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (P), where he worked on his botanical collections until he died.